So another session at work and busy as ever the boys and girls did me proud again as everyday there was more calls that people to deal with them and they just keep going from call to call.

One of the calls that make your ears prick up are the ones that have the phrase “Armed with a Firearm/Gun” or shots fired. This is a very frequent call but thankfully most of them come to nothing as the person is either gone or never existed or it was an assumption by the caller rather than fact….such a call came in yesterday at about 7pm….” “ “informant states that there is a man walking down the middle of the road with a large gun in his hand”….our ears prick up and a set procedure is set in motion, checks are instigated and the informant is asked further questions, what does the gun look like, have you any experience with guns, etc etc there are many things we need to know…I look at my sergeant in the control room and a knowing glance passes between us and we both have the same thought …”is this another LOB..( load of Bo*&%K’s”)…the CCTV operator breaks in..” we have the male on camera” and the screen changes to the camera covering that location. and there in full colour we can see a man walking down the middle of the road. ..Cars having to drive around him to avoid hitting him. In his hand is clearly seen a Large Revolver type Handgun and he keeps waving it about.. Shit!! I think, and a hundred and one things flit through my mind. I look around the control room and the guys and girls are doing all the things they are trained to do in this situation, radio channels are separated so this incident can be run on one channel. and the other channel deals with the everyday calls. Just because of this does not mean we can forget about the rest of the Borough and in fact as the channels separate I hear another call “suspect package and “a call to go to a fight”. Right now we need eyes on the ground and one of my officers calls up who is in plain clothes and says that he is on route in an unmarked car ...

”Trojan One”..(The Armed response car) comes up on the radio telling us that they are on route and travelling as fast as they can from about 15 miles away, they ask for checks to be done…but the control room is one step ahead and everything they ask about is, or has been done. As this is going on the male is being monitored by CCTV but will soon be out of sight…."I have eyeball on the male” comes the call from the officer who has rushed out from the station to get a physical view of the man….it is one of the amazing things about this job …the officer came into work this evening with no idea about how the day would go he left his wife and joined his colleagues for the start of the shift chatting about the everyday things that you chat about, getting prepared for the night shift with no real thought to what will be happening…Then within the space of 5 minutes he is out on the street on his own following a man armed with a gun giving vital commentary back to the control room, his own thoughts flooding his mind, "what do i do if he see,s me, "What do i do if he starts shooting at people" What will they say if i lose him".

The man goes out of CCTV range and the only contact we have is the plain clothed officer watching him, the control is getting other calls 999 calls from motorists and passers by who have seen this guy and quite rightly are scared and concerned.

The Trojan unit is 4 minutes away and I know that their adrenaline is pumping as they get closer I know that the driver will be fighting his/her way through the traffic Two Tones and lights going.. making progress as fast as they can ….the driver knows that he/she needs to be careful and balance the need for safety and the urgency to arrive. if they crash ..Well they are no help to me. As an advanced driver myself I know the pressure the driver is feeling.

Everything is in full swing other officers are near the area and a RVP( Rendezvous Point)
is being set up, the male has now entered and address and the officer is hidden out of sight, keeping an eye on the front door…”SHIT” I think now he is in a house the situation changes and I have to think about a change of tactics, we are now going to contain the address with armed officers and slow the whole thing down….this could become quite protracted roads will have to be sealed off and people kept away, cordons put in checks made. .
Trojan turns up with two cars and tactics are being drawn up…” He’s out again and walking up the road. I cant see the Gun now”…This is the information from the officer watching him…Everything again changes in an instant!!
I give Authorisation to the Firearms unit to engage and carry out a “hard Stop”…they get in their cars and position themselves, listening to the commentary by the officer…The man goes into an off licence and officers are around the nearby streets trying to stop traffic coming down, trying to keep as many of the public away from the off licence…some people curse them and demand to know what right the officer has to interfere with there lawful right to walk the street. impatient motorists get angry at being diverted down side streets….

The radio is silent and a lone voice comes in” Suspect out of the Off licence” Trojan move forward …the next 30 seconds will decide if we all face a year long enquiry by the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission), who will spring into action the moment a shot is fired, regardless of the outcome…then every second of the events will be looked over…every decision will be scrutinised every radio message and computer entry analysed to see if any officer needs to be disciplined or if any are to be prosecuted …Ultimately whatever happens the buck will stop with me as everything has been authorised by me…
I have followed the Trojan down the street and watch them carry out a hard stop. something that they practise and Practise over and over again until it becomes second nature. in those spilt seconds one of them may have to make that decision to pull the trigger and they will shoot at the biggest area the torso…which unfortunately has all their vital organs which increases the chances of the wound being fatal…those of you who have used weapons know that the TV cops who shoot guns out of peoples hands…who just wing the bad guy or who stand there talking to him for ten minutes to get him to “give it up” are just that.. TV Cops…it does not happen like that

I watch as they deployed rifles raised, they exit their vehicles and swarm towards the man he turns and incredibly despite all the guns and 3 officers hurling towards him he lunges forward at them in a Kung fu stance…next thing he is on the ground trussed up like a turkey…unarmed officers move forward and take over from the armed officers and search him …he no longer has the gun. the Trojan units have already been given my Authority to move on and secure the house to find the weapon…I am close to the male ..a tall black guy. It becomes obvious now we are talking to him that he has some mental health issues the arresting officer is calming him down giving reassuring words. We realise he is scared and confused …onlookers outside the cordon are straining to see what is happening. I hear a couple of shouts. ”racist Bastards” comes one shout…” Leave him alone”. Other people have their phones out no doubt trying to get something to put on Youtube or evidence of police brutality. we are used to this and take no interest in them. We do speak to local people peeking out of their windows ..we explain what has gone on and they give us some information quite a few thank us …some tell us that the man is well known to them and that many have complained to the council about him.

We recover the gun. it is a replica blank firing revolver ..I can tell you now I have handled weapons all my life…I could not tell the difference between that and a real gun. if he had pointed it at me I would have shit myself. The firearm officers have looked at it and they are shaken and I can see that what they are thinking. if he had pointed it at them they would have shot him …as they look at it they shake their heads and are clearly relieve that the incident is over …you can see that they are pumped with adrenaline ..And they secure their weapons…

The house is a mess we find another guy who lives there…it is a house that is full of junk and mess all the rooms are full to the top with junk and strangely thousands, of toy cars. you know the Dinky cars. the kitchen is covered in filth you can see mice scuttling about, in fact we can see several dead ones lying about. mess and filth everywhere I can't begin to describe it there is a mattress on the kitchen floor where clearly someone has been sleeping ..
My officers who were seaching for the gun had been gingerly looking through the squallier.. one appears from the back of the kitchen and he is shaking his head and has a smile of disbelief on his face…”look at this guv” he says to me…I look in what would have been a toilet it is full of junk and the toilet has a dead chicken stuffed in it. It looks surreal we look at each other and shake our heads.

We talk to the guy who owns the house and he is a College lecturer and he explains he is suffering from depression and that the black guy stays with him as part of “care in the community” he assures us that he is fine when he takes his medication but that he has stopped taking it. I asked when he was last seen by the doctor or the social services ..He cant remember..

As I leave this house of filth the lady next door asks me to step in and I explain what has happened I notice her emaculate clean house and her children are sat at the table playing. as I leave I notice a mouse trap by a cupboard…having mice problems I say. yes she says .i don’t know why but no matter how hard we try we just cant get rid of them…everyone around here seems to have the same problem!!!!!